


Offensive Manuevers

by betheflame



Series: POTS Server Stocking Fills 2019 [13]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Bickering, Bisexual Tony Stark, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Minor Bucky Barnes/Natasha Romanov, Pre-Slash, Road Trips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-28
Updated: 2020-01-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:55:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22454536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/betheflame/pseuds/betheflame
Summary: Tony and Steve are stuck on a road trip to Becca Barnes' wedding. Only problem? They hate each other.Or do they?
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Series: POTS Server Stocking Fills 2019 [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1569040
Comments: 16
Kudos: 163
Collections: POTS (18+) Stony Stocking 2019, Star Spangled Bingo 2020, Tony Stark Bingo 2020





	Offensive Manuevers

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ohjustpeachy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohjustpeachy/gifts).
  * In response to a prompt by [ohjustpeachy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohjustpeachy/pseuds/ohjustpeachy) in the [stony_stocking_2019](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/stony_stocking_2019) collection. 



> **Prompt:** College au where they fall in love on a road trip  
> Dearest Peachy! I hope you enjoy it! I have plans to expand this world later in the year if you do. 
> 
> _____  
> TSB Info:  
> Card: 3017  
> Square: R2 "Matchmaker"
> 
> SSB Info:  
> Square N4: "College AU"

“He is the worst,” Steve ground out. “He drives too fast, and he talks too much, and he’s an arrogant pain the ass, Buck. I’m not riding with him.”

Bucky stared at Steve across the table in the small cafe where they were having lunch. “Do you want to miss Becca’s wedding?”

“No.”

“Do you want to skip Nakia’s final show?”

Steve made a face. “Of course not.”

“Then your option is to ride with Stark and shut up.” He took a giant bite of his sandwich and then proceeded to talk with his mouth full, which drove Steve insane. “Now, let’s talk about how I’m gonna get Nat to share a room with me.”

“God, close your mouth, you are not a cow,” Steve threw a napkin across the table.

“Moooooo,” Bucky responded with a grin and then swallowed. “But seriously.”

“You are asking your gay best friend who has not had a date in _eight months_ about how to get our best friend into bed?”

“Yup,” Bucky replied. “Everything I’ve tried hasn’t worked.”

“Have you tried asking her?” Steve raised an eyebrow. “Like, literally just using your words and saying ‘Natasha, I have been in love with you since we were infants, but I am a coward and have never said anything, will you please take pity on me and agree to be my girlfriend?'”

Bucky scowled at Steve. “I hope Stark goes 100 mph the whole way and does it while listening to Led Zeppelin at top volume.”

Steve grinned and downed the rest of his coffee. “Love you, too, Buck. I got econ, so I’ll see you later.”

“Later.”

* * *

“Bucky,” Tony stared at his lab partner, “he hates me.”

“He’s just prickly,” Bucky responded as the two contorted themselves around their latest robotics project. “Plus, you already agreed to do this.”

“He’s just… I know he’s your best friend, but…”

“Oh, Steven Grant Rogers has been a pain in my ass since we were in diapers, you ain’t gotta explain anything to me. His scrawny ass has gotten into more trouble than an entire team of shore leave sailors could imagine and his mouth is caustic,” Bucky laughed. “But he’s also the best guy I know and I love ‘m like a brother. Plus, he’s a good navigator.”

“We’re driving six hours,” Tony muttered. “On four highways and three roads, plus one jughandle and a sharp curve.”

“Sure, photographic memory, but my point stands. Now hand me the ⅜.”

The pair worked in companionable silence for a while before Tony’s phone went off and he left the workshop. Bucky was about to go back to work when his other lab mate interrupted.

“You know what you’re doing?”

Bucky looked over at Bruce Banner and grinned. “For sure, Brucie.”

Bruce looked skeptical but fell silent.

Of course Bucky knew what he was doing. He was setting up the two most emotionally volatile people he knew on a contrived, forced road trip to his sister’s wedding so that they’d fall in love.

What could possibly go wrong?

* * *

“I’m calling AAA,” Steve gritted his teeth.

“I can change a fucking tire, Rogers,” Tony snapped back.

“Not without a jack!”

“It’s just physics, get out of my way,” Tony growled and began digging around in his trunk.

They were about two hours from the wedding venue when Tony hit a pothole - thanks Pennsylvania Department of Transportation for always having the best road care - and they both felt the tire go flat. They’d been bickering non-stop since leaving Manhattan, anyway, so Tony figured they could just shift the fighting from the front seat to the road side and no one would be able to tell the difference.

If only Rogers wasn’t so _fucking beautiful_ , with the cheekbones and the eyes the color of sapphires and the delicate fingers that made Tony daydream. If only he wasn’t smart, and passionate, and informed, and basically a walking embodiment of ‘Things Tony Stark Is Into’ - this whole trip to his ex-girlfriend’s wedding would be a lot easier.

* * *

“Jesus Christ,” Steve swore to himself as Tony away from the car and into a Starbucks to pick up their mobile order. “His ass will literally be the death of me.”

They had thirty minutes to go, but neither man was particularly in a hurry to get to the venue. Tony had confessed he felt awkward being the last man Becca had dated before she met Sam, and Steve had said that, while he loved Bucky’s family, they overwhelmed the hell out of him. All of a sudden, they were doing 55 instead of 70 and stopping more often for snacks or coffee or for one of them to ‘stretch their legs’.

In the last six hours, Steve’s life had shifted. He had been so sure that Tony was an arrogant, loud mouthed bother with more money than sense and someone who was a waste of Steve’s time. Instead, he found that Tony was an arrogant, loud mouthed bother with more money than he knew what to do with and so he spent his time inventing things to make other people’s lives function more easily with the income they have.

When he was bored at age 13, Tony had invented a washing machine that used ⅓ less water and cost ⅔ less and sold it through a shell company exclusively to lower income families. At 15, he’d worked out a cheap way to teach coding so that anyone could learn for basically free, and by 20, while everyone else he knew was working on a bachelor’s, Tony was on his 2nd PhD in electrical engineering because he has an idea about reworking the New York City Power Grid.

None of this, Steve was shocked, was said with any level of bravado, but instead a matter-of-fact-ness that brought Steve up short. He had been wrong about Stark.

And once he made that decision, he could stare at the other boy’s lashes, and dream about running his hands through Tony’s curls, and wondering what his skin would taste like, because… well, it had been a while.

And when Tony smiled… well, Steve wasn’t a saint.

* * *

“Oh, fuck, there’s Aunt Sharyl,” Steve muttered under his breath.

“Oh god, the homophobic Aunt Sharyl?” Tony had heard stories from both Bucky and Becca.

“Yeah,” Steve’s face went slightly green. “She’s -”

“Do you trust me?” Tony interrupted.

Steve blinked a few times and nodded, not even quite sure why.

At that, Tony grinned and threaded his fingers through Steve’s. He leaned in to give Steve a quick kiss and said, “follow my lead.”

Steve was too busy forgetting to breathe over the kiss to notice that Tony was pulling the pair of them towards Aunt Sharyl.

“Hi, Aunt Sharyl, right?” Tony oozed charm. “I’m Tony Stark. Becs and Buck and Stevie here have told me so much about you. So nice to meet you.”

The woman was too shocked about meeting Tony Stark to comment on how the boys’ hands were clasped or that Tony casually referenced he dated both the bride and Steve (but not at the same time!) and how Tony fawned over how lovely the day was going to be that she barely responded before Tony spirited him and Steve away to the bar.

“What just happened?” Steve breathed as Tony ordered a Bushmills on the rocks.

“Offensive maneuvers,” Tony responded. “Learned it from dear old dad. Razzle dazzle the bigots with the name, then get out of there before they can respond to the words you just spouted.”

“This whole wedding is going to think you’re my boyfriend,” Steve replied and a look of panic crossed Tony’s face.

“Fuck, I’m sorry, I just… just tell everyone we broke up or Sharyl heard wrong or, fuck, I’m sorry, I did it again, the thing where I just jump in and fix without asking… Rhodey was yelling at me about this, how I meddle, Jesus, I thought I was getting better. I’m-”

When Steve pulled back from the kiss, he leaned his forehead against Tony’s. “I’m fine.”

“Oh,” Tony’s voice came out in a squeak. “Good. Me too.”

Steve smiled. “Grab your whiskey, let’s mingle, boyfriend.”

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [Twitter](http://www.twitter.com/betheflame1) or [Tumblr](http://betheflame.tumblr.com) for more on these yahoos. You can also submit prompts and cajole me into writing faster - it usually works. If you're on Discord, I'm definitely there, too, and probably hanging in the [Stony](https://discord.gg/z5WSqbS) or [Stuckony](https://discord.gg/jtXcc3n) servers.


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